Adnan Khairallah

Adnan Khairallah (1939-4 May 1989) was the Minister of Defense of Iraq from 1977 until his death in a helicopter crash in 1989. He was also the younger brother-in-law of Saddam Hussein.

Biography
Khairallah was born in Tikrit in 1939, and in 1956 he joined the Iraqi Ba'ath Party. He played a role in the 1963 and 1968 coups, and in 1977 he was appointed the new Minister of Defense of Iraq by his brother-in-law President Saddam Hussein. In this post, Khairallah commanded the armed forces of Iraq, and his tenure saw Iraq fight a war with Iran that lasted for the duration of the 1980s. The Iran-Iraq War was a World War I-style war that saw trench warfare, bayonet charges, chemical attacks, the use of aerial bombardments against enemy cities, and costly offensives led by poor commanders.

In 1989, Khairallah died in a helicopter crash while he was heading to the family retreat of Sarsang, near Mosul. Some people think that Saddam was behind his assassination due to a family rift.